A middle school music teacher who yearns to be a jazz pianist gets his big break when he’s invited to join a highly regarded quartet. But just before his first performance with them, an accident leaves his body in a coma and sends his spirit into the afterlife. His efforts to avoid going to heaven and return to his earthly existence bring him instead to the realm where the personalities of future babies are formed. There, he’s assigned to mentor a soul who has stubbornly refused to be born for centuries. By John Mulderig